Google+ Woos Businesses With Restricted Communities

Google+ is appealing to enterprise today with the launch of restricted communities. In addition to restricted posts and a number of other business features, this tool ensures that only people within a company can join the group and interact with the updates in it.

Whether it’s designs of your beta product or notes from your team, anything posted within the restricted community will remain private. You can decide whether your community will be open to everyone at your company or joinable by invite only.

While admins can set restricted communities as the default for your organization, you can also create communities open to people outside of your domain. This opens doors for valuable collaboration as it enables clients, agencies, and business partners to join the discussion.

Once created, you’ll be able to share files from Google Drive as well as videos, events, and photos. Admins can easily change settings, manage memberships, and invite other team members. More information about starting and managing a restricted community can be found in the Help Center.

Many companies use tools like Yammer for internal communications, but Google is hoping that you’ll give it a chance. With this extra layer of security, business owners can feel confident that an employee won’t accidentally leak important or confidential information on the social network.

Jennifer is a former sorority girl turned geek, writer, and mobile app enthusiast. She has worked as a community manager/social media strategist for several startups. Most recently she has written for Sprout Social, Today’s iPhone, and 20 Something Bloggers. Jennifer is passionate about social media, apps, and physiology – she literally has a skeleton in her closet.